Building the GR-Research XLS Encores was a fun but challenging project. Here I will provide a summary of the build process from start to finish, and what I learned along the way.
Ordering Parts:
The cabinets for the XLS Encores are offered either as a flat-pack which you have to assemble yourself, or as a finished product, which you can purchase for an additional $100. I decided I didn’t have the patience or the resources to build the cabinet how I wanted it, so I allowed GR-Research’s partner, Killian at Denton Woodworkers, to assemble the cabinets for me. I would highly recommend going this route unless you have the tools to properly put together a cabinet. It will save a ton of time and money, and probably look better too.
The crossover parts arrived first, along with solder, screws, tube connectors, ports for the speaker, and drivers, as well as a schematic for the crossover circuit. They also included their signature No-Rez material, which is used to line the walls of the speaker cabinet and prevent unwanted resonances in the box from degrading the sound.
Once all of the parts had arrived (the cabinets came a week later), I realized that I was lucky I was home for the summer and my dad had the tools to complete the project. There are start-up costs to consider when taking on a project like this. You need pliers, a soldering iron, wire strippers, and high-quality scissors as well as a power saw if you plan on cutting any MDF, particularly for the crossover boards. Oh, and do you want your finished speaker to have a high-end, glossy finish? You’ll need to prepare for that as well.
Step 1: The Crossover
Before the cabinets arrived, I used online schematics of the cabinet dimensions to prepare a crossover board that would fit inside the box. I then went ahead and wired the crossover based on the schematic that was provided to me with the kit. Unfortunately, despite the videos that are provided by GR-Research for the build, I found myself struggling to optimize the layout of the board as I didn’t have a photo of what the finished crossover should look like for my particular build. On GR-Research’s forum, there are several photos of crossovers built by other customers as a rough guideline, although not everyone orders the same parts for their build, so following the photos directly can be difficult. The holes in the board for the zip ties had to be marked with a pencil and then drilled. If the left and right boards aren’t identical, you will need to drill them separately. Aligning the parts, marking and drilling holes, and installing the zip ties took me a solid two hours. It should be noted that the inductors in the circuit were measured for interference and optimized in their orientation for minimal distortion, which may have affected the final layout. Properly aligning inductors is not something I would overlook, as failing to do so can result in audible consequences.
Step 2: The Wiring
High-purity solid core copper wire is included, which is great, except that I found it exceedingly difficult to work with since it is so hard to manipulate, especially as a beginner without any wire twisting experience. This led to some very ugly solder joints, but I learned something and got a good laugh out of it. The wires weren’t pre-cut, so I had to measure the length of the wire with the crossover board next to the cabinets to see how long I needed each section, then cut to that exact length so I could install the drivers and tube connectors. This was time-consuming and I think adding pre-cut wires would be an easy and convenient thing to add to the kit. The return wire for the tweeter is spliced at multiple points to act as the common negative. This took some careful twisting, measuring, and cutting to expose the wire exactly where it needed to be spliced.
Step 3: No-Rez installation
Before the cabinets arrived, I had 4 small sheets of No-Rez that I was supposed to line the cabinet with. Since I wanted to accurately cut the No-Rez to cover as much surface area as possible without blocking the internal bracing, ports, or speaker terminal holes, I decided I needed to know the exact size of each piece that I would be cutting based on a diagram. Unfortunately, this isn’t included in the kit, and you have to find the information yourself or settle for conservative cabinet coverage since you won’t know what fits. I would recommend that GR-Research include lines on the back of the No-Rez, so you know where to cut to optimize space. While there are diagrams that provide the exact dimensions required for the No-Rez pieces online, they are not printable in a 1:1 scale so you need to measure everything by hand, which is extremely time-consuming. Fortunately, I created Visio diagrams using the published dimensions that could be printed in a 1:1 ratio for easy tracing of the shapes I needed to cut. I have attached a PDF version of the diagrams printable in 1:1 scale here. Make sure to use adobe acrobat viewer since not every viewer will render the shaded areas in a 1:1 scale. Since I didn’t have a table saw to cut the No-Rez, I needed to score the sheets by hand with a razor, and then cut everything by hand with scissors. After 3 hours of cutting, my hand was sore as hell. I managed to accurately cut and label every piece, which allowed me to line over 90% of the area of the cabinet with this damping material, which made it extremely inert.
Step 4: The Paint Job
Look, I could have just left the speakers looking like they did out of the box, but that’s not how I roll. If I wanted to build a statement piece that was supposed to compete with speakers of a much higher caliber, I wanted it to look the part. I was ambitious and decided to try my hand at probably the most difficult paint job in the world: The piano black finish. Taking too many trips to Home Depot was an understatement. I had to learn a lot about paint selection, orange peel, and sanding. God, I did so much sanding. I wanted to see if I could get the finish I wanted without spraying since not everyone has the facilities or equipment to spray paint. As it turns out, without very high-quality self-leveling paint, a gloss finish is incredibly difficult to achieve. I tried enamels at first but ended up choosing acrylic paint on top of Zinsser cover stain primer and plastic wood filler (to seal the MDF edges) since they are easier to clean up and dry much faster. I tried my best to find a paint that would level well, but whether I used a roller, a foam brush, or dragging a foam roller along, I was left with a very uneven surface. The key to a high gloss finish is ensuring that the base coat is perfectly smooth since any roughness will present itself through the final clearcoat. I could have put on many base coats and sanded endlessly until I got it looking smooth, but I eventually realized it just wasn’t worth the hassle, and after stripping the paint off the edges for the 3rd time, I decided the amount of sanding required for a paint that doesn’t level well, even with Floetrol (helps with leveling), just wasn’t worth the effort. I ultimately ended up using a roller with Benjamin Moore paint mixed with Floetrol and achieved an acceptable finish. I had bought clear coat with the intention of using it to achieve the glossy look, but now I wanted to use it simply for the purpose of protecting the base coat underneath. The final result was ugly. Up close you could see brush marks everywhere and every bit of dust and oil showed through the finish like a sore thumb, but I realized that it takes more time, technique, and the proper paints to achieve the look I desired, and ultimately this was a speaker project, not a painting project. I finished up the clear coating and called it a day. Maybe next time I can do better. Oh well.
Step 5: Installing Tube connectors:
Tube connectors are the signature speaker terminal from GR-Research. They rely on a low mass connection that allows for as close to a point-to-point connection between internal and external speaker wire as you can get. According to GR-Research, this provides a significant increase in sound clarity, even more than using traditional high quality binding posts. Installing the tube connectors was not trivial, however, since the inside of the female end of the tube is hollow (the male end is supposed to be the termination for your speaker cables), any excess flux or solder can enter the tube and make it difficult to insert and remove your speaker cables. You are supposed to use the male end to set the stop point for the internal wire, and then crimp and solder accordingly. I found the tube connectors to be slightly flawed due to the hollow tube in the center, which can lead to debris getting in the tube from the soldering if you aren’t careful. The tube connectors also have very tight tolerances which can make inserting and removing cables challenging. Once the internal wires had been soldered to the stop point, I guided the wires through the holes and hammered the tube connectors into the box with a mallet.
Step 6: Final Assembly
I finished off the project by adding heat shrink to the soldered driver connections, and adding liquid electrical tape instead of heat shrink to the crossover circuit to protect the solder joints. I also used silicone caulk to seal the plastic port to the back of the speaker, which led to some residue coming out and needing to be removed. This step didn’t take long, however. Once the crossover had been insulated properly, I mounted it to the base of the speaker on top of two high-density foam pads to minimize vibration. The fit of the crossover was much tighter than I expected, and my 5.5” by 9.5” board just barely fit inside the damped cabinet. The fit was so tight, I didn’t even bother screwing it down. It wasn’t going anywhere. The most time-intensive part of this project was realizing how tight the tolerance was for the tweeter cutout. It has to sit perfectly flush with the cabinet for the woofer to sit on top of it, and unfortunately due to some stray paint in the tweeter cutout lip, I spent 45 minutes scraping and cutting until I got the woofer to sit flat in its place. For one, I should have test-fitted the tweeter before, but you should also make sure that you cover the edges where the drivers are mounted so you avoid needing to worry about fit.
Final Setup:
Once the speakers were complete, I placed them on sand-filled metal stands roughly three feet from the front wall, and about 5.5 feet apart, with 1.5 inch toe-in between the left and right corners. The speakers were 7.5ft from the listening position. The XLS Encores sat on the Isoacoustics Aperta 200 speaker platform with a 4-degree tilt down towards the listening position. Finally, I was ready to listen. You can read the full review of the XLS Encores here.
